Saturday, March 5, 2022

Midnight Killer.

*original review posted on 10/11/2018*
*revised on 3/4/2022*

In the mean streets of Los Angeles, Vietnam vet Roy (Xorge Noble) is cooking up heroin in a vintage ice cream scoop. Roy's only friend Carlos (Rodolfo Infante) takes him into his home to get better & be safe. Carlos & Roy were in 'Nam and suffered so much together there. After the war, Roy unfortunately got addicted to heroin after recovering from his injuries and his addiction worsened when his wife was brutally raped & murdered by some local thugs. While Roy struggles with trying to kick the habit (or not do so much of it)—Carlos is out working on his latest report for the local paper. He usually does writing on local politics, but this time around Carlos has decided to do a report on a string of brutal murders that are happening around the city. It seems that a ski-masked psycho is out killing people late at night and Carlos insinuates that Roy is the killer considering he always blacks out after doing heroin and has been waking up in blood-stained clothing. Could Roy actually be the killer? Or is it someone far more sinister from the past?

Back in 2015, I wrote about Xorge Noble’s Invocacion Satanica and the expectations I had for it weren’t exactly really met, but this time around Xorge Noble brought me the slasher movie I been wanting to see from him. Asesino De Media Noche (aka "Midnight Killer") is a great SOV slasher in all aspects and it starts out with how intriguing all the characters are, in particular the main 2—Carlos & Roy. Roy is a hopeless man lost in a pool of drugs & trauma, thus you feel very bad for him. As for Carlos, as normal as he tries to appear—he's clearly suffering from a lot of trauma as well. He also has an unusual hairstyle & wears tiny sunglasses which makes his entire demeanor so very peculiar. Both Xorge Noble & Rodolfo Infante got into their roles so perfectly and that’s truly admirable. 

What also makes Asesino so great is how entertaining the kill scenes are since there’s a decent amount of blood in all of them and just before the killer claims a victim or two—we see him creepily walking around holding a giant knife in his hand. Sometimes the knife looks real, but other times it's clearly a fake one made out of foil to shine out. Now the only “bad” thing about Asesino De Media Noche is how super dark it is since it was clearly filmed at night and there was much lack of lighting throughout the duration. Still though, despite the darkness, the entire movie’s aesthetic feels so raw & grimy that you almost feel like you’re there. You can truly see & maybe even smell the grimy 1990’s LA atmosphere.

Asesino De Media Noche is an amazing Mexican SOV slasher movie. It meets the expectations everyone wants in a SOV flick and it's also kept short but so very sweet. Or in this case, so very grimy. If you thought you’ve seen every SOV slasher/horror movie ever made, well don't get so cocky & think again because I’m pretty sure Asesino De Media Noche has fallen under everyone’s fucking radar and that probably includes you.